


Goldy

by SpaceDimentio



Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Genre: F/M, there's some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 00:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13306368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceDimentio/pseuds/SpaceDimentio
Summary: A little alien crash lands on Earth and is locked up tight. In an unfamiliar place among a hostile people, what can he do to save himself? Written in 2011





	Goldy

The starship struggled to free itself from the pull of the blue planet’s gravity. The engine spluttered and almost stopped. Inside the cockpit, a little alien fought to maintain control of the starship.   
  
A warning light was flashing bright red and several alarms were sounding. There was something horribly wrong with the ship, but the alien didn’t know what. There were two options he could take. One, stop the ship, put on a spacesuit, and get out and try to fix it. However, the ship would begin to orbit around the planet. If he couldn’t fix it, he would be stuck out here until his supplies ran out.   
  
The other option was to land on the planet. There was no telling what might be waiting for him on the surface, but there could also be food and water.  
  
Decided, the alien turned the prow of the starship towards the planet and gunned the engine. It coughed and then restarted. The ship started to move.   
  
Without warning, the engine failed and all the lights went out. With gravity pulling it, the ship picked up speed at an alarming rate. The alien tried to steer it with limited results. When it entered the atmosphere, the ship began to glow orange. As the surface neared, the alien desperately pressed the emergency landing gear button. Nothing happened. He quickly buckled himself into a safety harness and braced for impact.  
  
The starship hit the ground with an explosive crash. The ship slid, leaving a large gouge. It stopped, tilting forward and then settling with a creak. The metal plates on the outside had crumpled and the cockpit had broken open. Smoke rose from the front.   
  
The alien lay unconscious against the control panel. One of his angelic wings was broken and red blood dripped from a wound to his forehead.   
  
Panicked humans ran out of a nearby building, alarmed by the sound of the crash. What they found was unbelievable to them; A long scar torn into the earth and, at the end of it, a steaming hunk of crushed metal, a small alien seemingly dead inside. A crowd gathered, talking in low voices and shifting uneasily.   
  
Someone tentatively crept up to the starship and peeked inside. He recoiled, seeing the alien, but it didn’t move. He reached out and touched it. Its skin was somewhat leathery and still warm. The guy pulled the alien from the ship and set it down on the ground. Everybody gasped. Suddenly, cell phones were everywhere and there were hundreds of overexcited conversations happening at once.  
  


* * *

  
A switch was flipped and the lights flickered. A white room was revealed. The room had a cold and sterile feel. In the center was a gray slab of metal and above were a couple of adjustable lights. On the far end was a one-way mirror. Many important-looking people were already seated in chairs on the other side. They’d come to watch.   
  
The door opened and a doctor and two assistants walked in. The doctor spoke to the audience while the assistants made preparations. “Good evening, ladies and gents. As you all know, my name is Quincy. I’m the head of this paranormal and extraterrestrial facility. Late yesterday, an unidentified object crashed into a field near Tucson, North Dakota. The pilot was killed by the crash. Both the craft and the pilot have been extradited from the North Dakota Security Department to us at Area 51. You have been invited here today to watch me dissect the alien.”   
  
The crowd murmured as the doctor paced, thinking.   
  
“It is rare to recover the body of an alien,” he continued. “Unfortunately, one has never been found alive.  
  
He glanced over at the door and shouted, “Alright. Bring it in.” Another assistant entered wheeling a cart. On the top lay a shape covered with a shroud. The assistant picked it up and put it on the metal table in the middle of the room. Then she pulled off the shroud.   
  
The crowd gasped. It wasn’t a little green man as they had come to expect, but rather a small, ball-shaped creature with stubby arms. It didn’t have any legs, only large, toe-less feet. Its skin was orange and its feet were blue. Each hand had three nail-less fingers and an opposable thumb. Its face was a lot like a human’s, but it didn’t have a nose, ears, or hair. There was a bruised gash on its forehead. The area was covered in dried blood. It had a pair of angel wings. The feathers were mixed colors of red, yellow, and orange. The left wing was bent the wrong way.  
  
The doctor walked over to the table. He picked up a scalpel from a tray full of medical equipment and bent over the alien. Just as he was about to make the first cut, something grabbed his wrist. The alien’s eyes had flown open and it was clenching his wrist. He dropped the scalpel and tried to pull away. The alien let go and he fell to the floor.   
  
The assistants panicked but then tried to subdue it. The alien fought them off and frantically scrambled off the table. It darted out the door as the doctor called for help.  
  
The building went into lockdown mode and all the doors were shut tight. Soon, men armed with tranquilizer guns were running through the hallways, looking for the alien. They found it and cornered it in a dead-end hallway. It stopped, turned around, and tried to get through them, but they knocked it back and shot it with a dose of tranquilizer.   
  
Slowly, the alien’s blue eyes flickered and closed and it slid to the ground, prostrate.   
  


* * *

  
His stream of consciousness slowly returned to him as the effects of the tranquilizer wore off. He didn’t immediately wake up, but a blinding light dragged him up to the surface. He opened his eyes, wincing a little at the pain the light caused.   
  
He looked around and found that he was lying on the floor of a sterile, white cell. On the far wall was the outline of a door. There was no handle, only a small window too high for him to see out of.   
He started to get up, but something was throwing off his balance. His broken wing was bandaged and pinned to his back. Suddenly, he felt afraid. If the wing was marred, he would never be able to fly again.  
  
Chilled by the thought, he stood up, careful to hold on to the walls. He opened his good wing to spread out his imbalance. When he was steady on his feet, he folded it again.   
  
There wasn’t much to his new room. It had even less than a normal prison cell. There was no bed, no toilet, no sink, no anything. There was only white light from the ceiling and a camera lens, its little red light blinking in the far corner of the ceiling. Knowing that they were watching his every movement didn’t make him feel any better.   
  
He walked over to the door, still holding onto the wall for support. He pushed against the door to see if it would open, but it was tightly sealed. He put his ear against it to listen, but heard nothing. The silence was maddening and its weight pressed down upon him.   
  
Tiredly, he went back to the corner where he had woken up and sat down, careful not to put any pressure on his broken wing. He hugged his feet to himself and closed his eyes. This was the equal to the human fetal position.  
  
It was humans he was dealing with. There were other humans out there in the universe, but these were somewhat different. They were callous and uncouth, and they thought that they were better than everything else. They thought that they were the only intelligent ones. He hated that he was in their care.   
  
So far they had done a pretty poor job of it. They had tried to dissect him and hadn’t even bothered to check for a pulse. If he hadn’t woken up in time… He shuddered at the thought.   
  
And now he was trapped.  
  
Just then, a buzzer sounded and an unseen slot in the wall opened. A drawer-like tray popped out and on it was a plate of food and a cup of water. He got up again and went over to inspect it. He hadn’t realized how hungry and thirsty he was. He took a sip of the water to see if it was actually water, and then gulped down the entire glassful.   
  
The water had been quenching but the food, on the other hand, didn’t look too appetizing. It was a lumpy, tan-colored paste that was in reality poorly made mashed potatoes. He couldn’t know that, however, since there weren’t potatoes where he came from. He tentatively scooped up a glob of it with one finger since they hadn’t given him any utensils. He brought the glob to his mouth and tasted it. “Whatever it is,” he thought, “it needs more salt.”  
  
He ate a little more, but it was very bland and unappetizing. He went back to his corner to think some more. He hoped that he would be fed more than this meager mush.   
  
The tray receded back into the wall with a click. A few minutes later, it popped back out again. He investigated and found a slab of bloody, raw meat. He backed away, disgusted.   
  
The tray disappeared and soon reappeared. He realized that they were trying to figure out what he would eat. On this one was an assortment of vegetables. He ate the ones he recognized.   
  
When the tray was gone once more, he leaned against the wall next to the spot. Why bother walking back and forth? The next time there were assorted fruits, some cut into slices and some left whole. He recognized the apples, peaches, and grapes and ate them gratefully. He decided to try a few of the other fruits. Some of them were to his taste and some weren’t.   
  
The next and last thing was bread and some more water. He ate a third of the loaf, drank the water, and sat back down in his corner, satiated.  
  
More than two hours of nothing passed before the lights went out. He was left alone in the dark with only the red light of the watching camera for company. He lay down with his back to the door. Feeling cold, he hugged himself with his arms and one wing and tried to sleep. It was a long time before he did and he was haunted by dreams of humanoid monsters chasing him and torturing him.   
  


* * *

  
Director Quincy and his aid Julia walked down the hallway. They were talking about their new discovery. “It has a rather unexpected form,” the Director said. Julia nodded in agreement. “Nothing at all like anything else we’ve found,” he continued. “So, what were the results of the first test?”   
  
Julia answered, “It ate the fruits, vegetables and bread, sir. It sampled the mashed potatoes and some fruits that weren’t familiar to it and it appears to need water to drink. I’m sure that it’s an intelligent being, sir. I can feel it.”   
  
“Well, we’ll see. We’re almost there.”   
  
They soon arrived at the cell. Quincy peered in through the window. The alien was sitting in a corner, its back to the door. He knocked on the door and said, “Hello?” The alien turned to look at him, but looked away again. All but pounding on the door now, he shouted, “I demand to know what you’re doing here!”   
  
“Quincy! Don’t be so rough!” cried Julia. She nudged him away from the window. “Can you understand us?” She paused for a response but the alien didn’t move. “I know you must be scared and confused,” she continued.   
  
From beside her, Quincy said, “Don’t be ridiculous Julia. It doesn’t know what we’re talking about. Besides, I have better things to do than this. Let’s go.” He pulled Julia away from the cell door.   
She went reluctantly, but as she left, the alien looked at the window, its baby blue eyes filled with hatred.  
  


* * *

  
There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t escape, and he couldn’t do much else. Twice a day, the tray popped out from the wall to give him food and water. The rest of the day was spent in long stints in which absolutely nothing happened. He was sentenced to hour upon hour of miserable and mind-numbing boredom. He did exercises to keep himself fit, but the rest of his time was spent staring at a wall, thinking. There was no place to sleep, only the cold floor.   
  
Occasionally, the two humans would appear and try to talk to him. The male spoke in angry, astringent tones while the female talked with kinder ones. He never responded. He wouldn’t let them know that he understood everything they said. He could speak English very well but why should he talk to his captors?  
  
More than a fortnight passed that way before something changed. The two humans came and by the sound of it they had brought a few more. The male’s face appeared in the window and he said “Don’t move or you’ll be tranquilized again.” He gestured to someone behind him and muttered “I don’t know why I’m bothering with this” as he moved away.   
  
The door opened and two men began to drag something into the room. He could see the muzzle of a tranquilizer gun aimed directly at him. He was overjoyed to see that the object was a child’s bed with a pillow and blanket. He didn’t let it show, however, and remained passive.   
  
The men put the bed in the corner that he was accustomed to sitting and exited hurriedly. The door was sealed shut again. The humans left, but the female glanced at him through his window before leaving.  
  
That night, after the lights went out, he climbed up onto the bed. It wasn’t the best mattress in the universe but it was much better than the floor. He crawled under the blanket and laid his head down on the pillow. He briefly wondered how this had come about, and he fell asleep with the small hope that there might be more improvements.   
  


* * *

  
Early the next day, the female paid him a visit. Instead of just talking through the door as usual, she entered the room and shut the door behind her. She didn’t approach but sat cross-legged in front of the door. She sat there for a few minutes before she began to speak. “I’m sorry about all this. Really,” she said. “I know that you must hate it in here. But I’ve managed to get Quincy to let me take my own course with you. He’s a jerk, you know. Sometimes I just want to punch him.”   
  
She paused for a moment. He merely sat on his bed and kept his face hidden from her.   
  
“I saw that you were uncomfortable on the floor, so I got you a bed. I hope you like it.” She stood up and took a slow step towards him. His eyes were instantly fixed on her, watching. “I know you won’t like this,” she continued, taking another step. “But I have to check up on your wing. I’m not sure of how good a job I did, but I hope that it’s healing right.”  
  
He stiffened as she sat down on the bed beside him. She touched the bandaged wing and he clenched his fists in an effort to stay put. She quietly said, “Please try to relax. It doesn’t help if you’re all tense.” He tried but could relax only a tiny bit.   
  
She gently unbound the wing and put the wrappings aside. He automatically tried to flex it and winced at the sharp pain that followed. She started to reach out a hand to touch him but she pulled it back. She prodded the area of the break, hardly touching it, and he almost cried out in pain.   
  
“Well, it’s better than before. It still needs some time to heal,” she said as she wrapped it up with a fresh bandage.  
  
She didn’t immediately leave, but remained sitting next to him. He was beginning to realize that she wasn’t his enemy. She talked about him a kindly manner, unlike anyone else in the facility, and she was clearly trying to help him. Who knows what else she could do for him?   
  
Still, he would continue to be silent. He shouldn’t trust her. He couldn’t keep up the act of not knowing their language anymore since it had become clear that he understood the things that were said. That didn’t mean that he had to say something back.   
  
She stood up, drawing his attention back to the present. She went to the door and started to open it with a scan card, but looked back at him and said, “Oh, by the way, my name is Julia.” Eyes filled with sympathy, she closed the door and sealed it shut.   
  
Her visit had given him a lot to think about. He had never considered that he could have a friend here. The idea was very appealing in his present situation. He was tempted to speak to her but knew that the camera would pick it up. It was recording every second of his imprisonment.  
  
When lunch came, there was silverware and a napkin on the tray. He was glad that he wouldn’t have to eat everything with his fingers anymore. He looked at the camera, hoping that Julia would see that he knew how to use the utensils.   
  
Julia visited him every day after that. She didn’t do much other than talk. She talked about inconsequential things like her social life but she also talked about the going-ons of the planet. He learned that it was called Earth. Though it didn’t look like it, he was listening to every word. Occasionally, she’d come in during lunchtime and eat lunch with him. Sometimes, when he was alone, he thought about stealing the card that she used to open the door from the inside, but he knew that he wouldn’t get far if he escaped.  
  
Gradually, he began to trust her. At least, they trusted each other with their safety. He trusted that she wouldn’t bring anything in that could harm him and she trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her. She didn’t know what he might be capable of.   
  
The day came when his wing was fully healed. Julia unwound the last bandage and felt the place of the break. It didn’t hurt anymore. He opened and closed it experimentally. When Julia smiled at him joyfully, he couldn’t help smiling back. He hopped off the bed and flapped his wings.   
  
The movement was weak. His flight muscles had lost all their strength. He couldn’t exercise them properly in this tiny room. He had a sudden, depressing thought. He would spend the rest of his long life in here, never to be free again.   
  
He slumped down to the floor and held his face in his hands. All of his pent up emotions caught up with him and he began to cry. Julia knelt down beside him, worried. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked, not expecting a response. Realizing that his silence hadn’t done anything to help him, he answered.  
  
“Am I to spend the rest of my life in this prison?”   
  
Julia gasped, shocked by the sound of his unmistakably male voice. “You speak English!”   
  
“Yes, and I’m done playing mute.” He uncovered his face, showing his tears and looking her right in the eye. “I hate this place. I can’t stand the boredom and it’s hardly big enough for the bed.” He sighed heavily.   
  
Julia said, “But why haven’t you said anything before now? I’ve always hated thinking of you as an ‘it’ simply because nobody can tell what gender you are.”   
  
“That’s quite understandable Julia. I didn’t have any reason to trust before. I still don’t know what ulterior motives you have for becoming my friend, but I realize now that my antisocial behavior wasn’t helping anything.”   
  
Julia didn’t say anything but instead wiped away his tears with the corner of her shirt.   
  
The motherly motion begot a sob. “I feel so broken,” he whispered.  
  
“Hey,” said Julia. “I promise that I’ll do everything I can for you.”   
  
Then she did something completely unexpected. She hugged him.   
  
Overwhelmed, he buried his face into her stomach and sobbed loudly. She gently massaged the base of his wings and let him release his heart-broken emotions. Slowly, his crying died down to a few quiet sniffles. He pulled away a little and looked at her with grateful and unguarded eyes.   
  
She picked him up and set him down on the bed. She wrapped the blanket around him and said, “It’s almost time for bed. They’ll turn the lights off soon.” Seeing his unhappiness, she said, “I hate to leave you like this… Well, I have to go change my shirt anyway.” He looked at the large, sodden mark he had left and then back up at her face. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise. Goodnight.”   
  
She went to leave but he tentatively asked, “Julia?” She turned back. Smiling shyly, he said, “Thank you, and, by the way, my name is Goldy.”  
  


* * *

  
The Director guided her to a table in the staff lunchroom. They sat down across from each other and took out their lunches. The other people in the room were engaged in noisy, convivial conversation. Julia tapped her fingers nervously, not sure which question Quincy would ask first.   
  
“So,” he began. “You’ve finally broken it.”   
  
“No, you did!” she snapped back, suddenly angry.   
  
“I never conceived of a discovery like this,” he said, pretending not to have heard. “More tests need to be conducted.”   
  
“Don’t you care about anything other than science, Quincy? He’s a living, thinking being with feelings. You can’t do anything to him without his consent,” Julia said, outraged.   
  
Quincy stood up, slamming his hands down on the table. “Excuse me, Julia. I’m the director here, not you.” He scooped up his untouched lunch and stalked off angrily.   
  
“This is why I don’t spend time with you,” she muttered to herself. She stood up, grabbed her food, and walked off in the opposite direction, the eyes of her now-silent coworkers staring at her curiously.   
  
She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but she found that her feet were taking her to Goldy’s cell. She didn’t stop them.   
  
She turned the corner into the long, lonely hallway of empty rooms. They had been created long ago to house aliens and those who claimed that they had been abducted. Now, only Goldy’s was occupied and most of the other rooms were used for storage.   
  
She stopped and knocked on his door, saying, “Goldy, it’s me. Can I come in?” “Yes” was the reply.   
He was lying on his bed, bored, but he smiled warmly at her as she entered.   
  
“Did you have lunch already?” Julia asked as she closed the door behind her. He nodded. She sat down on the floor and crossed her legs. Goldy hopped down and sat next to her. She started to spread out her lunch in front of her.   
  
Concerned, he asked, “You haven’t eaten yet?”   
  
“No. I was too busy yelling at Quincy. He doesn’t care that you’re human inside.”   
  
Startled by her vehemency, he reached out and touched her back with the tip of a wing.  
  
She ate in silence, glad for his companionship. She thought about all the things that they had talked about over the past few days.   
  
After she had comforted him, he had opened up to her. Goldy had told her about his home planet, Galvana, about his race of people, called Kirbites, and about how his stomach acids were strong enough to digest anything he ate without producing waste. She had wondered about that. He had even told her a child’s story about a dryad who had come out of a forest to pester a passing cattle driver. It had stolen his goad and his hat.   
  
Sitting in here for a while, listening and asking questions, had made her legs cramp up. She couldn’t imagine how he felt with no room to spread his wings. She was starting to hate the cell, too.  
  
It was then that an idea crept into her head. She wanted to go someplace where no one could watch you. She had requested that her room have no cameras in it, even if it was a threat to security.   
She looked at Goldy. He hadn’t moved, but he was clearly lost in thought. She wanted so desperately to give him his freedom. She decided that nothing should have stopped her in the first place.  
All of a sudden, Julia gathered the remains of her lunch and stood up, clearing Goldy’s glazed look. “What is it?” he asked.   
  
“Let’s go for a walk,” she said, smiling mischievously.   
  
“What do you mean?” he questioned, surprised.   
  
“I think it’s time you moved to a new room. I don’t care what anyone else says.” She opened the door and gestured outwards. “Let’s go.”   
  
Goldy paused, dumbstruck, but cautiously followed her out. He looked around, never having seen anything besides the inside of his room and a few hallways during his attempted escape. Julia caught his attention and asked, “Do you promise not to run away?”   
  
He nodded, saying that he’d have nowhere to go even if he tried. She walked slowly to let him take it all in, though something inside of her wanted to hurry. She peered around corners, not wanting to scare anyone with the sight of a two-foot tall alien walking casually next to the director’s aid.  
  
Eventually, they reached her room and slipped inside. Julia knew that Quincy would see everything on camera, but she couldn’t care less. In here, they could have some privacy. She could see that Goldy was happy to be in a place that was meant to be lived in.   
  
She directed him to a couch and sat down with him. There was a flat-screen positioned on a wall across from them. When Julia picked up a remote and pressed a button, images suddenly began to flicker across the screen.   
  
Startled, Goldy asked her what it was. “Oh, that?” she said. “It’s a TV. You can watch all sorts of programs on it, like the news, soap operas, cartoons, etc.”   
  
“It’s so primitive,” he said. “Kirbites used to have something like that, but it was abolished in the Subceta Era. During that time, a perfect blend of technology and natural things was implemented to stop environmental destruction. Yours is not the only planet to suffer from pollution and such.”   
  
“Well, how do you know what’s happening in the universe?”   
  
“We made a simple device just to receive news. It runs on carbon dioxide or stardust if you’re in a place without an atmosphere. A lot of things run on stardust, even my starship. Speaking of which, whatever happened to my things?”   
  
“After the crash, everything was brought here. There’s a team of scientists working on figuring out what your things do.”   
  
“I could show them how they work if they wanted me to.”   
  
“Maybe I could get them back for you.”  
  
“I was wondering…” Julia said slowly. “Would you like to learn how to read?”   
  
“Certainly… I wonder if you could learn to speak my language.”   
  
“I thought English was your language.”   
  
“No. English is my second language. Violica is my first. English just happens to be a common language in many places.”   
  
“But how did it get to other planets? I thought that English originated on Earth.”   
  
“That’s not the case. According to our history, Kirbites visited your planet long ago and taught the humans living here their language. It’s true that Earth is the birthplace of humans, but this isn’t the only planet that your species inhabits. When the Kirbites left, a few humans went with them and they have since spread.”   
  
“Wow. I would never have believed that if it didn’t come from you. You could teach us so much, Goldy.”  
  
There was a comfortable moment of silence. Julia showed Goldy how to work the TV remote. She changed the channel to a news station and turned the volume on so that he could listen. He watched for a little while but soon closed his eyes and just listened.   
  
Julia smiled and went to her desk to get some work done. Goldy’s breathing slowed and he fell asleep on the couch. Julia got up, turned off the TV, and covered him with a blanket.  
  
While she worked, Julia thought about how close they had become in the past few days. Ever since he had broken down, she hadn’t stopped thinking about his well-being. She was determined to keep him from being locked up in that cell ever again. Quincy couldn’t fire her for it. He was so disorganized that he would never get anything done without her help. It was up to her to somehow convince him and her coworkers to treat Goldy as if he was perfectly human.  
  
The day passed and he slept peacefully. After about an hour, he awoke, blinking sleepily. He glanced over at Julia, but she was hard at work so he didn’t bother her. He hugged the blanket to himself and found the TV remote, which had fallen to the floor. He couldn’t read the words printed on the black plastic. After he had discovered the power button, he experimented with the buttons and surfed through the channels. He grew hungry, but didn’t say so.   
  
His growling stomach gave him away, though. Julia heard from across the room. “Goldy, if you’re hungry, I can go get you something to eat. Don’t be afraid to ask.”   
  
He blushed, murmuring “Yes, please.”   
  
“OK. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back in a few minutes. If someone comes in, hide until I get back.” With that, she left with a brisk walk.  
  
He shivered a little, afraid to be left alone. He tried to pay attention to the television, but couldn’t. He strained to hear any foreign sound over the chatter of the television. Whenever he heard footsteps approaching, his heart pounded in his chest. One pair didn’t fade away after drawing near. The doorknob shook for a moment before the door opened.   
  
He sighed with relief when it was Julia who entered. She placed two plates and a glass of water next to him. “Here you go. Fresh from the kitchen.”   
  
“Thank you,” he said quietly.   
  
She paused, noticing his fear. She laid a hand on his shoulder to stop his shaking. “I’m sorry. I promise it’ll get better. I’ll protect you.”  
  
Smiling, she returned to her work. Goldy ate his food, neatly stacking the plates on the coffee table when he was done.   
  
It grew late and Julia started getting ready for bed. “Do you live here?” Goldy asked.   
  
“Yes,” she said. “This facility provides living quarters. This room is the living room and there’s a bedroom, bathroom, and workroom too. Unfortunately, you’ll have to sleep on the couch, since there’s only one bed. You can have another blanket if you want and I’ll go get you a pillow. I’ll make sure the door is locked tight. I probably should’ve locked it earlier when I left. If you need anything, wake me up.”   
  
She grabbed his glass and refilled it in the bathroom. She returned, bringing with her a soft pillow and an extra blanket. She bid him goodnight and surprised him by kissing him on the scar on his forehead. She locked the door, turned out the light, and went into the bedroom.   
  
He lay down, lightly touching his scar. It was all that remained of the head wound he had gotten from the crash. Julia had bandaged it when she had bandaged his wing but he had pulled off the cloth. It had healed well without it. The gash had closed and faded into a thin scar that was a slightly lighter orange color than the rest of him. He had forgotten all about it. He withdrew his hand, touched. He closed his eyes and curled the blankets about him.   
  


* * *

  
The morning light streamed in through her window. Its heat woke her up. She stayed in bed for a few minutes but eventually thrust aside the covers and slipped out of bed. She went through her morning routine, groggily stumbling around. When she was done, she went to check up on her friend. He was sound asleep on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket cocoon. She smiled to herself and went to get some breakfast. When she came back, he was just beginning to wake.   
  
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully. He blinked sleepily and shifted. She set down the food on the coffee table and sat down next to him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. She handed him some scrambled eggs and said “Here, sleepy head. These are for you.”   
  
He took them gratefully and started to nibble on them. Julia flipped on the TV and found some animated cartoons. Goldy watched, wide-eyed, as the bright colors zipped by, chuckling once in a while. Together, they ate breakfast without saying anything else. Without thinking about it, he scooted closer to her and put one of his blankets on her lap.  
  
There was a knocking at the door. They looked at each other, Goldy frightened, Julia suddenly determined. The knocking turned into pounding and the doorknob rattled. “Stay here,” she told him.   
  
As soon as she turned the key in the lock, the door burst open with a loud crack. Julia barely managed to get out of the way. Quincy dashed inside, followed by a couple of security guards. Julia stood in between them and Goldy, her expression that of rage. The guards pointed their tranquilizer guns at both of them.   
  
“Where is it?” Quincy demanded.   
  
“What do you want with him?” Julia responded.   
  
“It is a scientific specimen the likes of which we have never seen. In order to understand it, we must conduct experiments on it and push it to its limits.”   
  
“You can’t treat him like he’s just some animal, Quincy! He deserves to be treated as a human being with human rights! I want you out of here now and I want you to leave him alone.”   
  
“I am the director and you WILL do what I say!”   
  
“No! I’m done listening to you. You won’t ever understand Goldy because you don’t have a heart!”  
  
Quincy’s jaw fell open. Fire burned in his eyes. Lost for words, he stormed out of the room. The security guards hesitated, then turned and followed him out.   
  
Julia shut the door and returned to Goldy. Shivering, he snuggled into her side. She put her arm around him and held him close. “Goldy. Don’t worry. Everything will be ok.”   
  
He whispered back, “You won’t let him hurt me will you?”   
  
“No. Of course not.” He uncovered his face, his blue eyes watering. She smiled warmly and touched his cheek.   
  
“So, here’s what we’re going to do today. You’ll follow me around and I’ll introduce you to whomever we meet. Maybe some of them will come to know you as a friend, like I have.”   
  
“I’m scared to leave this room, though. It’s the closest thing I have to a safe haven.”   
  
“I know, but it’s important that you socialize with other people. It would be easier to protect and help you if I had some help. You could live just as freely as anyone else here.”   
  
“That would be wonderful. All 26 years of my life I have lived inviolate. Now I know what it’s like to have your freedom taken away… I long for wind to fill my wings.”   
  
“You’re 26?”   
  
“By Earth years. With your calendar, my birthday falls on June 22nd.”   
  
“I didn’t realize that you were so young.”   
  
“It’s very young by Kirbish standards. I don’t have too much worldly experience.”   
  
“I’m sure you’ll do fine. You may be shy, but you’re also friendly and very sweet.”  
  
He was silent but then got up and nodded to show that he was ready to go. She reached down and held his hand. Together, they walked down the hallway, his four fingers interlaced with her five.   
  


* * *

  
The sunlight beat down on his eyelids, causing him to groan and roll over. He blinked, trying to clear the tired stinging of his eyes. He got up, did his morning exercises, and took a shower. His day went as usual. He ate breakfast and talked to the people in the halls.   
  
Julia was giving him reading lessons and, in return, he taught Violica and Ellisan, the runes that he wrote with, to anyone who wanted to learn them.   
  
For a while, he sat outside alone, Julia being otherwise occupied. The sun was warm and the sky called to him. He was still too weak to fly.  
  
He put down his pack and took out a sandwich and a bag of small rocks. The rocks had been one of Julia’s many birthday presents to him. He remembered the surprise party she had thrown him. He had been unaware of what day it was and a bunch of people jumping out from behind his furniture shouting “Surprise!” had been completely unexpected.   
  
He had thoroughly enjoyed Earth’s birthday traditions, especially the eating of his UFO-shaped cake. It had been chocolate and had been filled with a delicious strawberry filling.   
  
He sighed happily, remembering the joy of being with all his friends. He opened the bag of rocks and poured a few out onto his hand. Julia had taught him what each kind was. He put them back and took the plastic wrapping off his sandwich.   
  
Absentmindedly, he rubbed the smooth surface of his favorite rock; a polished lump of black onyx. He loved the way its gentle gray and white stripes invoked some sort of vague beauty. Julia had told him that this particular rock had been hewn from a fissure in Arizona.   
  
He wiped the bread crumbs from his mouth. He laid back and closed his eyes, the onyx cupped in his hand. He listened to the whispering wind and the lilting songs of birds.  
  
Suddenly, he felt something pierce his skin and he sat up with a gasp of pain. He felt around and found what had hit him. It was a tranquilizer dart. Dizzy and panicked, he tried to stand up. He wobbled sickeningly and fell down. His limbs went numb and he couldn’t move, paralyzed. His vision blurred and then went black. He heard somebody laugh nearby before his thoughts were smothered.  
  
When he came to, he was strapped to a table. There were strong steel restraints across his wrists, ankles, and wings. He struggled against them, but it was no use.   
  
He could feel little suction cups attached to his forehead and chest. He tried to look around but couldn’t see much. There was the click of footsteps as someone walked up to him. It was the Director, and he was smiling cruelly.    
  
“Don’t like my trap, alien?” he said. “I’ve been planning this for a long time, now.” He started to pace around the table.   
  
“Why are you doing this?” cried Goldy, desperately afraid.   
  
“Why?” Quincy responded. “Why? Because I’m the one in charge here! I can do what I want, and I say that you are to be experimented on! I’m going to find out just how much of this you can take.”  
  
Quincy walked over to a panel of switches, dials, knobs, and flashing lights. He pressed a button and the table tilted so that Goldy was facing the control panel. His smile widened as his finger hovered over a switch.   
  
Terrified, Goldy pleadingly shook his head no. Quincy nodded, insanity showing in his eyes.   
He flipped the switch. A faint tingling ran through Goldy’s body. It hadn’t hurt him, but now he knew what was coming. He began to sweat and to tremble violently.   
  
Quincy turned a knob and flipped the switch again. This time the shock hurt. He gasped, all his muscles clenching. “Please don’t,” he pleaded.   
  
“You’re a blasphemy to mankind. You deserve this,” Quincy replied.   
  
He was zapped again, with more power. The electric shocks grew stronger until he was screaming and writhing in agony. The restraints cut into him and he bled. His skin smoked where the suction cups were placed. He could smell the acrid scent of the burns.   
  
He panted, his breath coming in short gasps. His eyes glazed over. Blood dribbled from his mouth, for he had bitten his tongue in his throes.  
  
He looked at Quincy, knowing that the next shock would kill him. The insane director stood there with his evil smile. He reached for the switch.   
  
There was a bang as the door was kicked opened and Julia rushed in to save him. She ran over and punched Quincy square in the face. His jaw broke and he fell to the floor.   
  
She searched for the release button. Having found it, she leaped to catch Goldy before he could fall. Turning to Quincy, she yelled, “Why did you do this? You could have killed him!”   
  
When he glared at her, something clicked. “You were trying to kill him,” she said in a low voice. “You monster!” She kicked him where it hurt and exited the torture chamber. Three security guards entered, forced him to his feet, and dragged him away.  
  
Julia ran down the hallways, heading towards the hospital wing. She clutched Goldy in the safety of her arms. When she got there, she quickly found the head doctor and assistant nurse.   
  
She laid him down on a hospital bed. Her front was covered with his blood. His eyes had closed and he wasn’t moving. “No!” she gasped. She held a hand over his open mouth and sighed in relief when she felt the whisper of his breath. He had only fallen unconscious on the way here, but it still brought tears of worry to her eyes.   
  
He was badly injured. His forehead and chest were burned, his feathers singed. His wrists, ankles, and wings were bleeding. “Can you help him?’ she asked the doctor.   
  
“I’ll do what I can,” he replied. He got started.   
  
When he was done, Goldy looked like a little round mummy. Most of his feathers had fallen out and his wings were bare and pink. His heartbeat beeped on a monitor. “He’s sleeping now. Don’t worry. He’ll recover from this,” the doctor informed Julia.   
  
She sat by his bedside and watched over him.  
  


* * *

  
Fluffy white clouds drifted across the blue sky. A light breeze ruffled his feathers. He lifted his wings, ready. When the wind was right, he jumped and let it carry him up into the air. He flapped, reading the wind for the first time in more than a year.  
  
On the ground, Julia ran underneath him. She looked up, a hand shielding her eyes from the sun. He swooped and circled with a grace that she hadn’t known he possessed.   
  
His flight was natural. His red, orange, and yellow feathers blended together. From here, it looked as if his wings were made of fire. He dived towards the earth, making her gasp. He pulled up at the last second, landing right in her arms. Together, they laughed, their voices imbued with innocent joy.


End file.
